Boromir, Captain of the White Tower with Shield
Conversion Guide
-- Ed O'Brien (Reapersoul)
Introduction
After deciding my Gondor force would not have enough points to support both Boromir and The Banner of Gondor and deciding I didn't want to shell out another £5 for a 6th pose of Boromir, I decided to attempt to convert Boromir Captain of the White Tower to wield a shield and sword with no banner. Was I mad? Surely, but here is how it turned out...
Materials and Tools
Boromir, Captain of the White Tower.
Wire Cutters!!
Craft knife
Green Stuff (Kneaded)
One Warrior of Minas Tirith that your are willing to sacrifice.
Jewellers Saw (or something similar)
Step 1: Cutting the Banner
Cut off all areas which the Banner is attached to using wire cutters. Make sure not to cut any other areas by accident, only: Just below Boromir's left hand, above and below his right hand, as shown in the next picture.
At this point, the banner should become separate from Boromir (we will fix the flag later so it may be given to another Gondorian warrior, or attached to Boromir, but for now we will leave it broken, but make sure to keep the pieces)
Step 2: Re-attaching his Sword
This is the easy part, simply cut off the sword and hand of a Warrior of Minas Tirith model using a Craft Knife or similar tool.
Next, attach the hand and sword of the Warrior of Minas Tirith to Boromir using Green Stuff (Kneaded) and Super-Glue.
Step 3: The shield hand
This is a very easy part, providing you have the right tools. Cut off Boromir's arm, at the point shown in the picture below using a jewellers saw (or similar tool). If possible try to make this cut slightly slanted, so it will look more natural for Boromir to be wielding a shield. But if this is not possible, it can be covered up with green stuff afterwards. Make sure to save Boromir's arm, as it will play a pivotal part in the next step.
Step 4: Attaching the Shield
Here is where it gets tricky - Some think Boromir used his trademark round shield in battle, at the time of defending Osgiliath, while others retain that he used the average Gondorian's shield, it is for this purpose that I will split this article into two separate ways to convert Boromir - The rounded shield and The average Gondorian shield.
I would recommend if you do not have any previous converting experience that you attempt converting him to wield the Gondorian shield before trying to convert him to wield the rounded shield, as it can be quite tricky.
(If converting Boromir to rounded shield disregard the next 4 paragraphs)
Gondorian Shield (The Easier Way)
The fiddliest part of the article in my opinion is you have to use lots of green stuff, but if you have a talent for sculpting, this will be too easy for you.
Firstly, you will need a shield from a Warrior of Minas Tirith for this part, simply take it from one and file off the arm attached to it, or cut it off with a Craft Knife, making sure the shield is smooth so it will attach nice and sturdily.
At this point you should have Boromir's right arm cut off at the elbow, if you don't, go and do it , but keep the part you cut off as you will need this later.
The first thing I would do with this would be to attach Boromir's right arm as shown in the picture below, you can then fill the gap with Green
Stuff---
---I cannot offer much advice on this part of the article as all it really requires is a tiny bit of experience with Green stuff, however I will offer some tips for working with green stuff in general:
*Using flour or a similar substance, and mixing it with the Green Stuff prevents it from sticking to your hand or modelling tool, especially useful if you are pressing a model.
*Leave the Green Stuff for 5mins after mixing, so that the chemicals in it can stop reacting.
*Always have all your tools ready before you begin mixing and sculpting, as while you are sculpting if you have to go and find something, it may cause you to lose your stride, or even forget what you were doing in the first place!
*Practice makes perfect! If you aren't happy with a piece the first time you make it, don't settle for it, just start again and make another one!
This should not be too hard though, after all, your only filling a small part of the model :)
Rounded Shield (Slightly Harder)
The technique I used for sculpting this shield was actually incredibly easy!! What I did was just this:
Mix your green stuff and leave it stand for 5mins.
Cover your green stuff with LOADS of flour (or something similar). (ed: vaseline works as well)
Press the green stuff against one of Boromir's rounded shields from another blister, or box set. Make sure you press it as hard as you can, so that you get all the detail of the original sculpt.
Leave it to set!
After 24 hours or so, it should harden and you will be able to simply flick off the green stuff from the model (providing you used enough flour). Although in many cases the green stuff will still stick to the model and you will not be able to remove it, if this happens, cut off the part which is still stuck to the model, and throw it in the bin. You should be able to fix up the part which you had to cut off very easily, just cover it up with a bit of green stuff.
And that's it, Boromir has had his banner taken away, and a shield has been added. He is now much stronger on the battle-field, maybe now he will be able to get his revenge on Lurtz, but I will leave that for you to decide!!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Also, A big thanks you to Ciric for the pictures of his beautifully painted Boromir, you're a star and thank you to Geo-Galad for helping me with the Green Stuff tips, thanks! Thank you!!
And of course, thank you for reading this article; I hope you thought it was worth your while.
Ed O'Brien (Reapersoul)
squirefender@hotmail.com
